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Uno
"Uno" is the first episode of the first season of Better Call Saul and the first episode of the series altogether. Jimmy works magic in the courtroom; after being inspired unexpectedly, Jimmy tries an unconventional method for pursuing potential clients. Teaser The pilot begins as a monochrome flash-forward sequence showing Saul Goodman, after the events of Breaking Bad, assuming a new identity as "Gene", working behind the counter at a shopping-mall Cinnabon located in Omaha, Nebraska. He becomes tense when a customer seems to be staring at him but is instantly relieved when he passes by him. Later, inside an old, modest home, Saul pours himself a glass of liquor and watches TV, flipping through channels. He then rummages around for a VHS from its hiding spot inside a shoebox and pops it in the VCR. The tape's contents is revealed to be a copy of his TV advertisements back in the days when Saul was still the esteemed lawyer. As the ads play, Saul begins to weep. Summary The episode flashes back circa May 2002, to when Jimmy McGill is an Albuquerque public defender representing three accused teenagers, charged with performing a sexual act on a freshly separated human head, apparently after hours in a funeral home. Jimmy's justification to convince the jury is that their actions were simply "boys being boys." In response to this, the prosecutor plays a video which contains footage of the three teenagers having sex with the severed cadaver's head. As he fails to win an acquittal for his teenage clients Saul's effort earns him a measly $700 as a public defender — not $700 per defendant, as he presumed. Jimmy complains about being paid only $700 for his effort on the defense and when a client calls on his cell phone, Jimmy pretends to be his own secretary in an office when arranging an appointment with a potentially big client. As he leaves the courthouse parking lot with the check, he is told he has to pay three dollars by the parking lot attendant. Jimmy meets Craig Kettleman, the county treasurer, who has been accused of embezzling $1.6 million, and his wife Betsy Kettleman at a cafe in order to secure a deal. Just as a letter of engagement is about to get signed, Betsy, whom Craig has brought along, stays her husband’s hand and asks for time to think this over. As Jimmy is driving, he talks on the phone about ordering the couple "classy" and expensive flowers, only to to find out that his credit card is maxed out. Suddenly, he hits a teenager on a skateboard with his car, who bounces off the windshield and lands on the pavement. The boy's brother, who videotaped the incident, is nearby watching. The brothers demand an instant settlement of $500, both intent on calling the police unless Jimmy pays them. Realizing that the situation is a charade, Jimmy reveals the brothers' ruse, adding that “The only way that entire car’s worth $500 is if there’s a $300 hooker sitting in it!”, in which they both run away. Afterwards, Jimmy returns to his office which is located in the boiler room of a Vietnamese beauty salon, only to find no messages on his phone. Opening his mail, he finds a check for over $26,000 the firm of Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill, which he tears up. Bursting in a conference-room meeting of lawyers. Jimmy confronts Howard Hamlin and his partners. He drops the torn pieces of the $26,000 check on the conference room table, and tells attorney Howard Hamlin why he’s there. He accuses Howard and his partners at Hamlin & McGill of trying to find a way to cheat his brother Chuck McGill, apparently a founding partner of the firm out of his rightful share. Assuring that his brother will not be returning to work, Jimmy demands a $17 million severance package on behalf of Chuck. On his way out, he is followed by Howard who tries to pass along some documents for Chuck, in which Jimmy declines "Chuck doesn't work here anymore." He notices the treasurer and his wife stopping in to hire the firm over him. Jimmy goes to visit Chuck, in the middle of a breakdown, who appears to suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity, whose hideaway requires visitors to leave their keys and phone in the mailbox and ground themselves before entering. Chuck’s house has no lights or refrigerator and he works by lantern on a manual typewriter. Chuck, aware of his illness, insists he’s going to get better in order for him to return to work at Hamlin & McGill. He declines Jimmy’s pleas to demand a buyout from his partners, objecting that the firm would probably have to liquidate to raise that much cash, putting more than a hundred people out of work. Jimmy tells him his public defender work isn't going to keep both of them afloat, which just results in a lecture from Chuck about how the experience of helping people is more important than money, despite the protests from Jimmy. Chuck reveals that Howard stopped by and gave him a an $857 check, the first of a new weekly stipend. He also suggests that Jimmy change his last name to avoid confusing any potential clients, with a "Wouldn't you rather build your own identity? Why ride on someone else’s coattails?" An infuriated Jimmy gets in his car, holding up one of the "James McGill" matchbooks that annoyed Howard. "You wanna dance, Howard? Let’s dance." Desperate for money, Jimmy devises an elaborate trap and enlists the two teenage skateboarders from the other day and suggests a partnership, telling them how he got his start taking "slip and falls" to get easy money back when he was nicknamed "Slippin' Jimmy." Slippin' Jimmy would find the most slippery patches of ice every winter, stage a fall, and earn himself enough cash to "keep him in Old Milwaukee and Maui Wowie through Labor Day." Jimmy's plan is to go after Betsy Kettleman, whose route to pick up her kids at school always intersects at the cafe, which places convenient witnesses. One of the teenage kids will then be hit by a car driven by Betsy, a Mercury Sable wagon, and Jimmy will come in and offer his legal surfaces to her, talking the brothers out of suing the woman, and later paying both of the brothers $2,000 for their troubles. In her gratitude, Betsy will then convince her husband to drop Howard & Hamlin and hire Jimmy for the embezzlement case. The twins are convinced that Jimmy can help them with their scamming procedures, so they sign on for his plan. The brothers execute the plan perfectly, but moments after the “accident” occurs, the Sable runs off, to the dismay of the skateboarders. In an attempt to chase the Mercury Sable wagon, the brothers hang on to the back of a truck. Jimmy sees this as an opportunity to gain more money at the prospect of defending a felony hit-and-run case. The Sable pulls into a driveway, but a Hispanic elderly woman exits the car instead. The skateboarders attempt to get money out of her anyways, and they follow her into the house. Jimmy frantically searches for the brothers — they were briefly in cellphone contact — and he happens across the parked Sable. Banging on the front door, it is opened by a man. The man points his gun at Jimmy, and yanks him inside. Credits Main Cast * Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman (Debut) * Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut (Debut) * Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler (Debut) * Patrick Fabian as Howard Hamlin (Debut) * Michael Mando as Nacho Varga (credit only) * Michael McKean as Chuck McGill (Debut) Supporting Cast * Julie Ann Emery as Betsy Kettleman (Debut) * Jeremy Shamos as Craig Kettleman (Debut) * Miriam Colon as (Debut) * Eileen Fogarty as Mrs. Nguyen (Debut) * Steven Levine as Lars (Debut) * Daniel Spenser Levine as Cal (Debut) * Raymond Cruz as Tuco Salamanca (Debut) * Nadine Marissa as Contract Counsel Administrator (Debut) * Sarah Minnich as Brenda (Debut) * Michael Perez as Staring Man (Debut) * Larry Glaister as Judge (Debut) * Lonnie Lane as Bailiff (Debut) * Sanford Kelley as Prosecutor (Debut) * Grant Barker as Defendant #1 (Debut) * Clay Space as Defendant #2 (Debut) * David Saiz as Defendant #3 (Debut) * Victoria Pham-Gilchrist as Salon Employee #1 (Debut) * Kim-Lan T. Phan as Salon Employee #2 (Debut) * Nhu Thi Ta as Salon Employee #3 (Debut) * Bau Thi Duong as Salon Employee #4 (Debut) * Krista Kendall as Cinnabon Employee #1 (Debut) * Raquel Pino as Cinnabon Employee #2 (Debut) Trivia * This episode is written by showrunner Vince Gilligan and writer Peter Gould and is directed by Vince Gilligan. It will be the first part of the two-episode premiere, which will air on February 8, 2015 and February 9, 2015. es:Uno Category:Better Call Saul episodes Category:Season 1 episodes (Better Call Saul)